The Netherlands Embassy, ​​in connection with the Dutch Presidency of the Council of Europe in 2016, organized an international conference in Warsaw. The aim of the meeting was to present both health systems, in the context of expenditure, legal solutions and development. It is worthwhile to look at the solutions proposed by the Netherlands, not only because they lead in the rankings on patient satisfaction and quality of treatment (leader in the Euro Health Consumer Index 2015), but also because of its over-the-counter health care policy which focuses on social, senior and education systems. Representatives of the health resort in the Netherlands recognize that not only illness or disability should be at the center of attention, but rather to provide citizens with autonomous and independent functioning in the society. This philosophy accurately reflects the main goals of modern physiotherapy, which focuses not only on functional improvement, but also on the elements of health education, prevention and improvement of patients' quality of life. Introduced in Poland in 2016, the Act on the Physiotherapy Profession (UZF) opens up completely new opportunities for the development of this occupation in Poland, especially in terms of increasing professional autonomy. The Netherlands offers direct access to physiotherapy (DAPT) since the health system reform in 2006. Using more than ten years of experience in Dutch DAPT, and taking into account changes in the polish physiotherapy sector, the aim of the study is to compare physiotherapy solutions, raising the main question: is the Polish market ready to implement DAPT?

Key words: rehabilitation, occupational autonomy, law regulation.